We apologize to our tenant customers for failing to understand that they have just as much right to protest the proposed water and sewer rate increases as do property owners. Our city attorney has set us straight, and fortunately there is still plenty of time for interested Dunsmuir citizens, property owners or tenants, to complete a protest notice, they just need to identify the assessor’s parcel number of the property where they are a tenant.
Many of the questions we hear are why are these improvements needed now and do we have to do everything at once? Why can’t we spread the rate increases and project improvement out over more years? These are good questions and we want to respond to them by comparing our water and sewer problems today with our car, boat or house.
Our water delivery and storage system is just like any of those personal possessions, they cost an awful lot of money when we bought them and they wear out and breakdown the older they get. Water and sewer systems will last about as long as our homes will and like our homes they require regular maintenance when parts of them start to break down. Sometimes we will want to remodel, add a new room or replace the roof.
Now imagine that over the years the state comes along and requires us to install new insulation and windows or upgrade out electrical and plumbing systems because what we had installed originally was no longer safe or reliable. In some ways that is exactly what is happening with our water and sewer systems.
We want to make sure that our sewer system does not pollute our river or the ground water and that when we turn on the tap we have a safe reliable supply of water. Our discharge permit, including the one issued in 2006, by the state agency responsible for working with us to ensure that we do not pollute the river imposes tougher standards that we are legally required to meet. What worked in 1975 when the current plant and much of the collection system were built does not get the job done today and has to be replaced.
The 1905 400,000 gallon water reservoir by the high school has never been able to store the 950,000 gallons of water required to supply our community’s needs for one day as it was intended because its elevation is to low. As it is there are fire flow problems at both the high school and elementary school and the reservoir needs to be bigger and higher to reliably provide the water supply we need. Like the electrical system in our house if we do not replace what is no longer working we risk what is essential to our daily lives.
We have a chance to get a 30 percent grant that will reduce the rate increases proposed in the second or third years and in addition we are going to ask our congressman to consider Dunsmuir for an “earmark” which is a special appropriation by Congress to help us fund these water and sewer improvements. It is a long shot but worth the effort.
As you consider whether to allow your city council to go forward with these planned improvements and the increased rates required, please think of it as an improvement in the “house” we all live in.
-- Peter Arth, Mayor, and Alan Harvey, Acting City Administrator
